Why Gamification should be on your agenda in 2014

Are you considering gamification as part of your employee communications strategy next year? Gamification is on the rise with our clients, and there is great reason for it.  We’ve outlined a few of the many compelling reasons why we believe 2014 is the year of gamification. 

Gamification breaks through the noise. There are a LOT of messages that come down through various organizations every day, and we all know that things get lost in the shuffle. Using gamification as an engagement strategy gets people's attention and creates an immediate connection.

Gamification facilitates faster learning and retention. Gamification has a 10 times higher retention rate than traditional computer based learning systems. 

Gamification builds high levels of engagement. Gamification turns the normal and boring every day work experience into something engaging and fun!

Gamification encourages a little healthy competition. 51% of American adults agree that if a layer of competition were added to everyday activities, they'd be more likely to keep a closer watch of their behavior in those areas. -JWT Intelligence 

Employees are empowered to actively gauge their performance. Everyone loves real time feedback- but lets be honest, feedback usually occurs in yearly reviews or during one-on-one meetings with your boss. Gamification allows employees to immediately know when they make a wrong move or guess a wrong answer- and they can instantly see their progress when they are doing well.

Gamification provides easy access to data and analytics. We have learned with our own projects the power of gamification when it comes to data collection and analysis. It's great because you can build a program to run analytics to see exactly what type of mechanics are working and which aren't, and how employees are performing.

If you’d like to learn more about how we are using gamification to inspire, motivate and engage with employees across different industries, click here to get in touch with us today.

10 Steps to Effective Brand Ambassador Programs

As our thoughts turn to the impact we can make in the New Year, we've summarized some key findings from our 2013 Brand Ambassador survey into this Top 10 list for building an effective brand ambassador program.

1. Articulate a clear statement of desired behavior regarding your organization’s Vision,     Mission and Values. This is your Template for Success.

2. Benchmark the current level of Brand Knowledge and Understanding through Employee Engagement research. Be sure to socialize the results internally.

3. Create an integrated Brand Ambassador program that is process-driven and supported by a budget sufficient to handle the task. Don’t under capitalize this endeavor!

4. Designate a task force to take responsibility and be accountable for driving the program throughout your organization. Include milestones for key activities.

5. Engage and formalize a group of employees to serve as a Standing Committee of Brand Ambassadors. Be certain they are assigned with specific tasks and deliverables.

6. Realign your HR processes and performance appraisal systems to support the Brand Ambassador Program components. Communicate these changes internally.

7. Ensure senior management plays an active role in the Brand Ambassador Program roll-out – they, too, are key Brand Ambassadors.

8. Encourage the CEO and members of the C-suite to engage employees with full transparency about all aspect of the program. They must become recognized champions of the program!

9. Develop a marketing plan that has consistent tonality, messaging and program content. Vet it internally prior to execution.

10. Select tactics that will have the greatest impact and positive ROI – including, but not limited to, training, social media, the latest Web-based technologies and rewards and recognition initiatives. Be sure to consider Gamification as one of your tactics! 

If you are interested in accessing the full 2013 Brand Ambassador Survey, you can download it here. 

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